Sunday, November 7, 2010

Animated World of DC Comics: The Batman (2003)

The Batman purported to present the Dark Knight in his early days, and for 5 seasons, it served as the centerpiece of Kids' WB's lineup, even after the WB was absorbed into the CW network. TriviaFreak uploaded the intro:

Producer Duane Capizzi & storyboard artist Jeff Matsuda came over from Sony, where they'd worked on another Kids' WB series, Jackie Chan Adventures, and their rendition of Bruce Wayne fell somewhere between Chan's American cousin and Sylvester Stallone. Not good. Their rebooting of some of the Batman's foes was hit and miss as well. A dreadlocked, barefoot Joker? Bad idea!! Transforming a Gotham detective, who is also a pal of Wayne's, into the new Clayface? Questionable. While they tried to pick up a plot device from Tim Burton as it related to Penguin (circa "Batman Returns" in 1992), they messed that up by giving Pengy two kabuki masked, mute assistants. Seems they only got Catwoman (Gina Gershon, taking over for Adrienne Barbeau) right. Where they really hit a home run was with the awesome theme song, composed and performed by U2's The Edge. Not the first time there's been a U2 link to the Bat-franchise. The band contributed to the soundtrack of 1995's "Batman Forever".

Batgirl was de-aged into a teenager, as was Poison Ivy, and they were introduced before Robin, which was another mistake.

Currently, reruns of the first season, and maybe the second, are in continuous loop on Boomerang, which seemingly has no interest in acquiring seasons 3-5.